Reading 1 Hull City 1: Draw was fair result, admits Pearson

HULL CITY manager Nigel Pearson blasted his team's performance after they scrambled a point at in-form Reading.

Corry Evans had bundled in a debut goal for the visitors after 51 minutes following Ian Harte's mix-up with goalkeeper Adam Federici.

But the former Leeds defender made up for his error on 80 minutes, slamming home the spot-kick after Tigers goalkeeper Brad Guzan brought down Shane Long.

"It was an ugly game and for whatever reason today collectively we didn't perform," said a frustrated Pearson afterwards. "In the first half we laboured and it's hard to put your finger on why.

"At half-time we made a change and dealt with the conditions and their style much better.

"It was disappointing to concede the penalty but if I am honest it was a fair result. It would be wrong of me to suggest Reading didn't deserve something from it.

"Brad doesn't think he got a touch on Shane Long for the penalty but it looked like a penalty and I am not going to grumble against decisions like that. Brad committed himself and then tried to pull away.

"Both teams will think it is a difficult game negotiated. The back four came out of the game with a lot of credit and Anthony Gerrard did really well

"The players stick together and they have learnt to stay in games. We didn't play with a lot of quality, but neither did they."

Reading manager Brian McDermott was relieved to see his side salvage something from a game in which he felt they were the better side.

"Because we were losing with 10 minutes to go it was a point gained for us," he said.

"A year ago we would have struggled to do that and ended up with nothing from the game."

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